What to do during your career break?
Today is Sunday, day 2 of my career break. I feel like everything is possible, I can do anything I want and I am excited about who I will become tomorrow. This feels good.
Just a week ago, this exact feeling was bad. Too many choices can stress you out. Do I want to be a fitness YouTuber or a sustainability educator? How about studying to be an actress? How about aiming to start a business?
At this time, I don’t want to worry about if I will make a living out of the ideas; I don’t care if I am good at them neither. I don’t need to be good to start something.
It is about experimenting and enjoyment.
I want to share an exercise that pulled me out of the anxiety from having too many choices — Odyssey Planning. It is a brainstorming activity where you draw 3 different 5-year plans, then evaluate the plans against 4 criteria: 1)Do you have the resource to pull off this plan? 2) Do you like it? 3)Are you feeling confident about this plan? 4) Are the plans coherent with your work view and life view?
Here is a worksheet you can use.
Fast-forward 5 years, what makes up a fullfilling life for you?
I drew 4 different five-year plans: as an actor, YouTuber, public servant, or podcaster. Drawing isn’t my strong suit, so this was very tiring, but I am glad I visualized it rather than writing it down as it helped me to believe that I can make any of them come true if I want.
While drawing, it didn’t take long to realize which life would suck. It was grilling to even just draw the “Actor Tingting”. I wanted to give up in the 3rd year (from just imagining it!) as I expect there isn’t much autonomy and room for creativity.
In comparison, I was excited as the years go by for “YouTuber Tingting” and I felt even more motivated after drawing. I imagined I will be able to create in a meaningful way, that touches people’s hearts and make my own decisions in life.
The 3 questions I want to answer for ‘Youtuber Tingting’ is:
- Am I good at it?
- Will I be happy? /Is this fulfilling?
- Will this be a long-term thing?
I look forward to answering these 3 questions after executing my plan as ‘Youtuber Tingting’!
I also compared the options against Ikigai’s four elements of fulfilling life: 1) what you love 2) what the world needs 3) what you get paid for 4) what you are good at. I replaced “what you get paid for” with “success in my definition” as this is what I want to focus on during the career break.
If the Odyssey planning gave me a chance to imagine living 3 different lives and feel the difference, the Ikigai analysis helped me to see the choices more objectively. I knew it doesn’t mean one option is necessarily better than the other, and it certainly doesn’t guarantee that I will be happy being a YouTuber as compared to a public servant for example.
What it did was giving me a start point to follow my heart.
Next: Plan for doing nothing
